It’s common for your appetite to change during chemotherapy. Sometimes you may not feel hungry or you may prefer different types of food. The drugs may also temporarily change how food tastes.
Learn more about:
- Nausea
- Dehydration
- How to manage appetite loss
- How to manage nausea
- Video: How to eat well after a cancer diagnosis
- Podcast: Appetite Loss and Nausea
Nausea
Chemotherapy can make you feel sick (nauseated) or make you vomit. Not everyone feels sick during or after chemotherapy, but if nausea affects you, it usually starts a few days after your first treatment.
Nausea may last a short time or for many hours and you may also vomit or retch (when you feel the need to vomit but can’t). Sometimes nausea lasts for days after treatment.
Often the best way to manage nausea is to prevent it from starting, so you will usually be given anti-nausea (antiemetic) medicine before, during and after your chemotherapy sessions. Anti-nausea medicine helps for most people, but finding the right one can take time.
If nausea or vomiting continues after using the prescribed medicine, let your nurse, doctor or pharmacist know early so that another medicine can be tried. Steroids may also be used to manage nausea.
Dehydration
Being unable to keep liquids down because of vomiting can make you dehydrated. Signs of dehydration include a dry mouth and skin, dark urine (wee), dizziness and confusion. It is not safe to be left alone
if you are vomiting a lot, as the confusion may make it difficult to realise you have become seriously dehydrated. If you think you may be dehydrated, contact your doctor.
How to manage appetite loss
- Eat what you feel like, when you feel like it, but avoid going for long periods without eating.
- Try eating frequent snacks rather than large meals.
- Avoid strong odours and cooking smells that may put you off eating. It might help to prepare meals ahead and freeze them for days you don’t feel like cooking.
- If the taste of certain foods has changed, don’t force yourself to eat them.
- If you don’t feel like eating solid foods, have drinks enriched with powdered milk, yoghurt or honey. Or try easy-to-swallow foods such as scrambled eggs.
- Don’t use nutritional supplements, vitamins or medicines without your doctor’s advice, as some products could affect how chemotherapy works.
- Ask a dietitian for advice on the best foods or nutritional supplements to have during treatment and recovery.
How to manage nausea
- Have a light, bland meal before your treatment (e.g. soup with dry biscuits).
- Sip water or other fluids throughout the day so that you don’t get dehydrated. Sucking on ice cubes or iceblocks, or eating jelly can also increase your fluid intake. If water tastes unpleasant, flavour it with ginger cordial or syrup.
- If your stomach is upset, try drinking fizzy drinks such as soda water or dry ginger ale.
- If you wake up feeling sick, eat something small rather than skipping a meal.
- If you can’t keep fluids down, contact your doctor or hospital immediately. They may be able to treat the vomiting, or you may need to have fluids through an intravenous drip in hospital.
Once I started chemotherapy, I went off my food. My mouth felt very dry, which made food taste unappetising. Adding extra sauce helped.
Helen
For more on this, see Nutrition and cancer, and check out the podcast and video below.
→ READ MORE: Constipation or diarrhoea
Video: How to eat well after a cancer diagnosis
Podcast: Appetite Loss and Nausea
Listen to more episodes from our podcast for people affected by cancer
Key resource
Download a PDF booklet on this topic.
A/Prof Kate Mahon, Director of Medical Oncology, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, NSW; Katherine Bell, Dietetics Department, Liverpool Hospital, NSW; Brigitta Leben, Dietetics Department, Liverpool Hospital, NSW; Sophie Michele, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Dr Jess Smith, Medical Oncologist, Macquarie University Hospital, NSW; Karene Stewart, Consumer; Julie Teraci, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Skin Cancer and Melanoma, Cancer Network WA.
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